Ambiguous Words (1)
The morning after the freshman welcome party.
~~~♪
I opened my eyes to the familiar alarm.
A quick check of the time showed it was exactly nine. That left me plenty of room to wash up, grab a simple breakfast, and wait for Eve’s stream at a leisurely pace.
Of course, before any of that, I had to text Su-yeon hyung.
No reply for a while. Still asleep, maybe.
In the end I stuck to the original plan—quick wash, then an elegant breakfast of the bread and fruit I’d bought the day before. Only after that did my phone finally buzz.
Yesterday, huh.
Thinking back, a lot had happened.
I’d expected to make friends at the freshman welcome party. Then the sudden otaku coming-out had wiped out the people who might have become friends. While I was sitting alone, senior Wa Sol had come over. And I’d watched Kiri’s stream.
As expected of Su-yeon hyung. He knew me well.
After that pointless back-and-forth with Su-yeon hyung, I waited for Eve’s stream.
Current time: 9:55.
The room was already open, but the door still hadn’t opened.
Naturally the Adami couldn’t even wait five minutes. Chat and donations demanding she open the door plastered the screen until five minutes finally passed.
Only one day had passed and she was already calling it a long time.
It really had been way too long!
On the surface it was such a wholesome thing to say that maybe that was why. Eve’s voice genuinely sounded flustered, but—
Of course public opinion was on my side. As expected of the Adami.
We really were comrades.
As expected of Eve.
Barely ten minutes since the door opened and I already couldn’t stop smiling.
Even when the Adami went a little brain-rot in chat she gave just the right unexpected reactions without ever letting the conversation get away from her.
Even when other streamers got mentioned she sailed right past it.
Even when they teased her weak points she just laughed it off.
Watching the stream really drove home again that this kind of atmosphere was where Eve belonged.
That free chat led into a Utopia café tour.
A clip of the game Kiri had played that very morning was already up. Looking at the café post, after the chicken-eating stream yesterday she’d really stepped on the gas and streamed for eight hours straight.
Eve couldn’t do anything but gush, praising Kiri with everything she had.
And we Adami sent chat right back at her.
Eve’s cute, cheers!
That happy time flew by.
We stretched it a little longer with that kind of banter, but the end finally arrived.
And just like that, Eve’s stream closed for real.
…No matter how fun it had been, this particular moment always left me suddenly depressed.
Today’s score… around 82?
“Alright… time to text hyung.”
Whether it was misfortune or luck, Eve’s stream had ended before dinner, so it looked like I could eat with hyung.
He said that, but the way he casually watched Eve’s streams so often…
Hyung was pretty much an Adami himself by now.
All thanks to me raising him. Pride swelled in my chest.
Hmm… what to eat.
Yesterday we’d had meat and alcohol, so…
Two guys going to a place like that was a little weird, sure.
But I’d long since passed the stage of caring about other people’s stares.
I took a quick shower and, matching the still-chilly weather, pulled on a slightly thicker cardigan. Just a clean look—no need to dress up fancy just to meet hyung.
“Okay, let’s go.”
I left the room and headed down the stairs when—
“Oh?”
“Ah… Gachi.”
“Hello, senior.”
I ran into senior Wa Sol by chance.
Unlike yesterday’s black turtleneck sweater, she was dressed pretty casually.
Of course even that outfit couldn’t dim her charm; if anything it made me think, Yeah, she looks good in that too.
“Haaahm, where are you going?”
“Just heading out to eat.”
“Oh? Uh… yeah.”
“Hm? Okay, I’ll be going then.”
We exchanged only the bare minimum of formal greetings and parted ways.
Well, of course.
We’d first met three days ago and only really talked for the first time yesterday. Just because we’d bumped into each other didn’t mean we were close enough for a long conversation mid-hallway, and I wasn’t exactly a social butterfly either.
That was what I thought—until senior Wa Sol’s voice called me back.
“Hey, though.”
“Yes?”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m not sure of the exact location, but it’s a restaurant called Nostalgia.”
“Ah, that place. Got it.”
…Got what?
I felt something off, but she’d already gone straight into her room so I couldn’t properly ask.
What was that about?
Nostalgia. It could also mean homesickness—longing for one’s hometown.
Of course, written in English, the interior leaned more toward a Western hometown than an Eastern one.
Two guys coming here was one thing.
The atmosphere itself wasn’t bad.
“This place is nice. Kind of puts you at ease.”
“Right? As a date spot you can’t beat it.”
“And we came here as two guys.”
“Why the sudden bone-to-bone hit? If you’re gonna hurt, hurt alone.”
“I’ve got Eve.”
“You Adami bastard.”
“I’m already a fully grown adult. The kid I raised is you, hyung.”
“Whatever, just order. My treat today.”
“Okay. Thanks for the meal.”
“No hesitation at all.”
“I can’t seem to remember who bought hyung’s cigarettes in the army.”
“Hey hey, they’ve got steak too. Try that as well.”
He really did make people feel comfortable.
It was a little sad that the only friend I could banter with like this was hyung, and at the same time it made him feel weirdly precious. Disgustingly so.
“So something happen yesterday? Your expression doesn’t look bad.”
“Ah, I came out as an otaku.”
“Haa, I figured you’d do that. But you said it wasn’t bad after that, so something else must’ve happened. Spill that.”
Sharp as always.
Well, we’d spent that dense year together, after all.
“I met a… pretty good senior. First person in a long time I actually wanted to get closer to.”
“Oh, so you’re getting another hyung?”
“No, if I had to say, more like a noona?”
“What?”
“A noona.”
“What?”
“What, did you lag out?”
“What?”
“You really lagged.”
I kept calling Su-yeon hyung, but he stayed frozen like a lagged-out character. The moment I tried to stick a pickled radish up his nose the lag cleared.
“Cough, cough. You trying to shove vinegar-pickled stuff up my nose? You’re not even a demon.”
“I fixed your lag. So why’d you freeze up like that?”
“Why… because the person least connected to that kind of thing just said ‘noona.’”
Was it that strange?
I did have this longing to try dating, at least.
“I want to date too.”
“Dating a girl who accepts that you put Eve first… right?”
“Yeah.”
“Just eat.”
This guy…
He wasn’t even hiding that he thought it was impossible.
But yeah, the odds were pretty low.
A girl who accepted how much I liked Eve, who could happily talk VTubers with me, and who I found attractive…
“…”
One face did flash through my mind for a second.
But there was no way.
She was too far away from me. In a lot of ways.
“…So who the hell is this noona?”
The spaghetti, steak, and risotto we’d ordered earlier arrived and we started eating. Suddenly Su-yeon hyung looked my way and asked.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t properly told him.
“Well… even if I say the name you might not know. Do you know senior Wa Sol?”
“Ah… Wa Sol? I know her.”
“You do?”
“Of course. That one was famous back in first year.”
“…For what?”
“Hmm… just checking—the noona you just mentioned is Wa Sol, right?”
Hyung was still looking at me while talking, but something felt off. His gaze seemed to pass straight through me to something else.
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“She probably wouldn’t want to hear this herself.”
“Then I won’t listen.”
“You’re that kind of guy.”
“What?”
“Behind you.”
Behind?
So there really was something. I turned around.
“Wa Sol… senior?”
“Ah, hahaha. Right? I must’ve been imagining things, yeah?”
Senior Wa Sol stood there looking flustered—dressed cleanly, but clearly having put real effort into her appearance.